Levi Brown, banjo maker, player, and bon-vivant...

Originally posted on www.kristinagaddy.com 

At this year's (2015) 19th Century Banjo Gathering (Banjo Collector's Gathering), Pete Ross and I presented on Levi Brown. 

This banjo is owned by banjo researcher and historian Bob Winans. For many years, he knew that it was an antique, Minstrel-Era banjo from around the same time as the famous Boucher banjos. But there was no maker's mark or indication of where it came from. Until this showed up: ​

This tailpiece showed up on a banjo that had a nearly identical silhouette to Winans's banjo and had that mark: Levi Brown, Balto. Winans's research of banjo dealers and makers turned up the crucial information that Brown called himself a maker in advertisements and city directories. ​

An 1876 advertisement in Die Deutsche Korrespondent, a German language newspaper printed in Baltimore.

An 1860s City Directory listing for Baltimore with Levi Brown listed. It's very likely that this shop is still standing.

There are only four known Levi Brown banjos and only one image (pictured at the right). However, there are tens of banjos made by William Boucher, Jr., and the fiddle/ curled peg head shape was a trademark of his instruments and became a common depiction of the banjo in drawings of the banjo. Boucher was a businessman who focused his efforts on selling banjos that looked good, but could be made quickly with cheaper materials. Levi Brown made banjos, but not at the rate of Boucher, and it turns out that he was pretty busy doing other things, from printing sheet music, to performing with various minstrel groups, to teaching, to challenging other banjoists to playing duels... ​

A carte-de-visite of a young man holding a Levi Brown banjo. Collection of Jim Bollman, please don't use without permission....

(Above) 1883 D.C. Evening Star ad. 
(Left) Performance at the Holliday St. Theater (where City Hall is located today) with Kunkel's Nightingales.

   Our research uncovered that there was much more to Brown's life than just making banjos, which make sense when you know a little bit about existing Minstrel-Era banjos.